Valerie V. Sheares Ashby
Personal Information
Born: 1966
Country of Birth: USA
Nationality: USA
Ethnicity: Black
Education
UNC Chapel Hill BA 1988 & PhD 1994 Chemistry
" “Try things you’ve never imagined. Explore.” (cen.acs.org); ". . .where I realized that everybody has different gifts and talents, and mine are just as valuable as anybody else’s. I decided that I was going to be me, and I keep trying to choose positions and jobs where people actually want me to be me." (cen.acs.org); "
— Valerie V. Sheares Ashby
Professional Life
Field of Study: Chemistry
Institution/Corporation: University of Maryland Baltimore County; Duke University; UNC; Iowa State University
Degrees & Memberships: None found
Awards & Achievements
Awards: NSF Postdoctoral Fellow; NATO Postdoctoral Fellow; NSF Career Development Award; DuPont Young Faculty Award; 3M Young Faculty Award; UNC Chapel Hill General Alumni Association Faculty Service Award; J. Carlyle Sitterson Freshman Teaching Award; UNC Student Undergraduate Teaching Award; Johnston Teaching Award for Undergraduate Teaching; 2022 named Technologist of the Year, Women of Color Magazine
Achievements: 1st female president University of Maryland Baltimore County; helped increase the PhD completion rate of underrepresented minorities at UNC from 60% to 85%; lectures about overcoming Impostor Syndrome; designed & synthesized materials for biomedical applications like x-ray contrast agents, drug delivery materials & new bioelastomers before becoming an education administrator
holds 8 patents & 2 pending in polymer chemistries critical for biomedical applications
always wanted to be a teacher
credits her parents with making her the leader she is today; father was a minister & mother was an English teacher who founded & ran a homeless shelter for 30 years after her retirement
has 4 mentors she consults when needed